Sennen Empire
by LMTR14
Summary: Original story set in a post-war Yugioh-inspired world. Serious tone, pure honesty, no punches pulled. Original characters only.
1. Chapter 1

Sennen Empire

Come on, Yusei, we don't have all day.

Shut up already, Rai... I thought I heard something behind...

Will you two cut it out already! You-

A screeching sound put a sudden halt to the boys' bickering.

Oof, how lucky we got away from there! Takashi was panting hard. I swear that last semi was almost a... so-

Yusei interrupted the boy with a rapid smack on the head, much to the latter one's dismay. Solids don't exist any more! And thats a good thing too! They would kill us all if they spotted us!

They DO exist , Rai said quietly but with infinite certainty. Four eyes stared distrustfully - indignantly - at the boy, but he did not care at all. What had happened already was a thing of the past, yesterday's news. What mattered now was not the danger they had escaped. What mattered now was how to divide the loot.

I'm home , Rai said to his mother, who had just awoken, sitting in her rocking chair. Her tendency to abruptly fall asleep had been getting worse lately. Rai threw a glance on the digital clock to confirm his estimate which had been quite accurate. It was 2 AM. Nighttime... Rai thought, reminiscing. How many years had it been since he had seen the moon and stars. The overground world. The memories were almost gone... sometimes resurfacing in dreams inevitably turning into nightmares each time.

The sounds of animals. Trees. The blue sky. Warmth. Mother, a smile lighting on her face. The years underground had not yet worn her down. Namio often crept in the flashes of things past also, even though, of course, she did not belong. Not the cheerful Namio from the photograph, but a solemn, thoughtful one. Thunder. Fire falling from the sky. Loud noises and covering under tables. Going underground... the last view of the world above, of what now was all gone. Nothing but debris, radiation... and them. The last image always the same... The One. His presence staggering... a titan revolting against the gods. Whispering... something. Something just for the ears of Rai. Rai.

Rai!

The twelve-year old needed a moment to orient himself before he realised that it had happened again. The blank. It was always the same... it was the reason he needed to keep his thoughts straight. A memento of the cataclysm. He had learned to live with it.

It was 8 AM now, but that did not matter, of course. The electric light was keeping the darkness at bay. The boy got up from his bed. He had not taken off his clothes or even his shoes. He suddenly grasped urgently at his pocket.. With a sign of relief, he noticed that they still were there. The cards... the result of yesterday's scavenging. Split up amongst the three boys with much bickering and threats of violence. Rai had been able to snag the special card from Yusei... the card that almost had ignited the oil well of suspicion into a fiery inferno of hatred. The truth was still safe, temporarily at least. Rai knew it all too well.

Rai's head hurt slightly. He could not remember any actual punches thrown. His companions (he would not make the mistake to think of them as friends) would not go that far, especially not with him. The distrust always had been there, of course. But the exchange of fearful glances between Yusei and Takashi the boy could occasionally see out of the corner of his eye when things got heated was a recent development.

They changed, and he did not.

Rai shook off the thought and openened the door to the adjacent living room. One room was much like the other, there was little decoration. The omnipresent Eye symbol manifested itself in various forms on walls and electric appliances. Back before the catastrophe, the section of the underground base Rai's family and their only neighbors - Mrs. Tanaka and her little daughter - lived in had been part of the prison of the general staff's headquarters. Settling down here had proven to be a lucky choice, as not even bandits dared to approach the epicentre of the enemy's... the former enemy's onslaught of bombs. Even Rai's mates did never visit him at the place repurposed into a home. The boy sat down at the table, where his mother and his little sister were already eating quietly. The food was the same as usual. Only rarely would Rai's mother - or lately, the boy himself - make the hour trip to the nearby colony to trade for fresh produce or meat, or other supplies. The path was not a dangerous one, but the people there were... weird, behaving in illogical ways. A result of the war, of course. Many had seen - and some had caused bloodshed, murder, death.

The miso soup tasted exactly as always. Kozue had recently learned how to eat on her own without spilling half of the bowl's contents. She was a bright little four-year-old. The children's mother often proudly claimed she was taking after her father. Kozue had never seen her father's face. Rai could barely remember it. A memory, lost in the war.

Soy sauce chicken and rice. The family's two members who could remember eating fresh food on a daily basis had long grown accustomed to eating freeze-dried rations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Headquarters had been built specifically to stay self-sustainable for years, and the areas that survived the bombardment accordingly were fully operational. There was at least one decade worth of food shelved in the storage areas for the five people living together. Usually Mrs. Tanaka and her daughter Midori, who was the same age as Kozue and, by necessity, her only friend, would share their meals, but they hadn't shown up for this breakfast of sorts. Like almost all grown-ups he had ever met, Mrs. Tanaka's spirit was filled with weariness, and her health poor. The lack of sunlight, Mother said. The lack of purpose, too.

Mother teaching her daughter how to write and read. She had nothing more to teach to Rai. The boy had outgrown the remainders of her world a long time ago.

Kozue was a bright child. She could name colours, letters, numbers, animals from picture-books. Animals that didn't exist anymore. Or if they did, at least no-one was there to see them anymore.

Sitting in front of the viewscreen. Passing time. Daily routine. There was no more broadcasting, of course, but the headquarter's computer network had a large seletion of programmes stored in its databanks. Entertainment of the masses and food for thought both. Rai rarely joined in. The real world was, still, ever more interesting than the mind-numbing drivel of the age past. Rai needed to learn. Rai needed to grow. Rai needed to change.

The never-changing Ami logo on the cards old and new. The game had survived the catastrophe. It always did. Rai could perfectly remember the television advertisement he had seen as an infant, it was ingrained in his mind like an old wound that would never stop hurting from time to time. Drawn from ancient sources based on the magical games the Pharaos in the days of yore used - to do battles, to decide the fate of millions. History had a funny way of repeating itself. Rai smiled bitterly, rotating the special card held between his right hand's thumb and index finger with his other index finger. He had not seen one like it in a long time. He alone knew its meaning for now.

The deck was ready. Not complete, not perfected, of course, but enough. Rai had taken care of getting the cards he needed. He had his way of fooling his companions.. Sure, they had learned over time. A 12-star Nomi monster without the means to ever be able to summon it? A powerful ritual monster, but no matching ritual spell? Picking a foil card printed half a year before the cataclysm instead of a very old, very powerful rare that might be the only one of its type in the entire post-war country? They would not make such mistakes anymore. But Rai had always been getting his way nevertheless. The deck was ready. He was ready. The boy turned off the light illuminating his room. Tomorrow would be an interesting day for once. 


	2. Chapter 2

Rai Shinaka moved down the monotone grey corridor. He was wearing his best clothes. Black jeans, black combat boots, a pristine grey oversized t-shirt with a picture of an assault rifle and the word NOW printed on it in blood red letters. The headquarter had ample supplies of firearms, but Rai didn't need guns to fight where he was going. He only needed cards and probably his fists.

The others were dressed quite like him. Rai would have preferred they all could wear identical shirts, but his was the only one of its kind available. Takashi and Yusei didn't bicker and argue with heated aggressiveness like they commonly did when Rai spotted them at their usual meeting point. Instead they were waiting with their hands in their pockets, looking calm and focussed, compentent and ready. There would be no shenanigans and rebellion against him today. They knew he was the leader, because they knew he was the best. Rai didn't make the mistake of trusting them, but he knew how to use them. Like usual, the boy didn't know who exactly would face him today and there was, after all, safety in numbers.

The temperature started to change gradually as the boys were getting closer to their destination, but none of the boys paid enough attention to actually feel cold. The air smelled dirtier too close to the surface, the above-lands , as was the slang term used by underground dwellers. The trip to the duel ring required Team NOW to leave the HQ complex altogether, for a short distance. There was only little direct sunlight nowadays, most of the time the sun was hidden behind the dust clouds the enemy's weapon purposefully left as it razed the surface of the country on its mission of total annihilation. In his dreams Rai could see the trees and animals he had loved so much as a little boy in bright colours. Now, featureless brown and charcoal tones dominated his view. Bomb craters hampered the boys' progress on their way through a fallen metropolis of holey skeletons of houses and deadfalls of debris. It used to be the capital which made it the primary target of the enemy's aggression. Other parts of the country were said to be more intact, but there was little news ever coming from them. There were very few travellers in a world where survivors preferred to stay hidden in the safety of their holes. Even without the enemy, danger was ever present. Time was short.

Rai had but a black hole in his heart where he was supposed to feel, to care about any of his surroundings, any of the mass death and destruction. He knew that that was one way he clearly distinguished himself from his mates. The boy left the lead to Yusei, as always, as that way he didn't have to constantly watch his back. It was draining enough to have to worry about outside threats. He sent his eyes around, routinely glancing for anything that might be worth picked up and carried back home. What counted as trash before the war now often counted as treasure, and even after four years, there was still enough left hidden under piles and piles of had the habit of stuffing even the most worthless of garbage in his worn-out backpack, much to the chagrin of his companions. Part of a shoesole, a broken chopstick, burnt wires. Yusei had given up on trying to curb this behavior since not even violence would deter Takashi, who never had had much of anything in his life, having been a parentless waif even before the war. Yusei, on the other hand, did still largely consider himself above looting dirt off the street. He was the oldest of the boys by two years and had experienced the luxury of the the pre-war life his well-earning parents were able to provide him with the longest. The shock of losing his world didn't cause him to lose his old mannerisms altogether.

Ahah! , the garbage-collecting boy sounded. Rai routinely and emotionlessly turned to him. He knew how meticulously Takashi arranged his findings in his rathole of a home. Living space was no issue any more in this age. Nor was rent.

The object reminded Rai of a cattle fence. A cattle fence in miniature form, as it was plastic, a remnant of some toy or another, surprisingly intact but useless in and of itself. Useless to anybody but Takashi, who seemed overjoyed for a moment, acting as if he had just found the missing piece to complete his set. Things, Rai thought. Things provided a cornerstone to life, a frame on which to orient oneself, a sticky net that stretched around all of reality. Things were food, were shelter, survival. Things separated people. Things were power, too.

It was the fifth time the boys had made the trip to the duel ring. Who exactly had started the custom of monthly gatherings was not known to Rai and the others. There was little small talk there either, ever. People youngsters came here to settle disputes, bet cards, display power and generally show off. All under the central authority of the machine enforcing that the rules were followed. Rules and authority were a rare commodity now. Freedom, Rai knew, was not necessarily the absence of rules. In human history, Rai had heard from his private teacher before the war, freedom had always been something truly appreciated only by the few. The superior, intelligent, elite humans. The majority of common people needed laws to be kept from destroying themselves. Rai had not argued against his teacher, then or ever. Rai knew he would be a beneficiary of any system that put merit first. He knew he was one of the superior humans, as that was a feeling he had experienced throughout all of his existence. That fact had been what had attracted The One to Rai, too. And he would display that fact today, through duelling.

The boy's hands were sweating.

The duelling room was not particularly big. What made it special was that the building containing it an upper-class private residence, based on the general layout of the house was almost unharmed structually. About two dozen people, none younger than ten, none older than twenty, were gathered, most of them standing around in small, distinct groups, waiting for something to happen. Rai knew the names of some, and had seen most before. He knew how they duelled, too. Their strengths, their weaknesses, even their habits. He had spent copious time on looking up the card effects of cards duellists had used here, at the database the computer at his home exclusively provided him with, and thoroughly memorised them.

Few words were necessary. The procedures had established themselves naturally over the course of time. Rai and his comrades had been taking part in the event four times before, with mixed results. Twenty-three participants had shown up today, which forced the duelling system to pass out byes. Only Takashi had to play in the first round, which in itself was a blessing in disguise, as it meant one more chance of snagging an opponent's ante card or cards, which was, after all, the tournament's main attraction factor. Though, anything was attractive now as long as it took people's minds off the dreary dreadfulness of day-to-day existence. Aimlessness without any means to escape it. A human seeks its own reason to live, it's why , without fail. The game had been a huge part in the past, before and even during the war and the events leading up to it. With concepts like nation, government, country turned to dust, the individual had to procure a reason to exist more than ever. The duelists were fighting for their very lives, without knowing the truth of it.

I summon the Filthy Demon, Takashi remarked. The monster was visualised as a grotesque but small humanoid with dog-like features. Virtual blood was dripping from its boil-infested grimacing face. The monster altogether looked frightening and dangerous, which however belied its weak attack strength of 1200.

I end my turn .

Dumbass, Rai thought. Takashi's duelling was as aberrant as his rat-like detritus obsession. Summoning a weak normal monster in attack mode while setting no magic or trap cards left the advantage to the opponent with a very high probability. The field had just been cleared fully by the scrawny and rather ugly young boy opposing Rai's companion. Takashi had not even attacked directly, which had not surprised Rai as he knew the trick up Takashi's sleeve however, with his low remaining life points of 1200, setting a monster in defense mode would likely have been a superior strategy.

Takashi's opponent destroyed the Filthy Demon with a 1800 ATK monster, resulting in a whirlwind of holographic explosions that looked reasonably impressive but did little more than provide the game with a visualisation. Psychic duelling was not possible with this basic home model duelling machine. After he set a card, he ended his turn.

Takashi put a monster in defense mode and set two cards, scratching his head furiously. When his opponent attacked the face-down monster, the boy activated his first trap card: Life Equalizer. In an instant, both players' life points became 3000. Takashi destroyed the opponent's newly summoned Dynamite Golem with his destroyed Man-Eater Bug's flip effect. As the stumped opponent ended his turn with a sigh, Takashi activated his second trap card. In my next standby phase, Holocaust Repeater will inflict the same life point reduction to you that happened in this turn. If it is still on the field, that is, Takashi paraphrased the card effect. He then nervously threw a glance at Rai, who did not move a muscle, another at his backpack which was lying at Yusei's feet, and grinned at his opponent furiously.

The ugly boy was out of luck. He did not possess a way to remove Takashi's face-up trap card from the field, and thus was left with attacking the face-down monster he had set in his turn. Smashing the defending monster to pieces did nothing to stop the inevitable. In Takashi's next standby phase, Holocaust Repeater activated and inflicted 6000 damage to his opponent's life points. Apparently affected by another mood swing, Takashi wordlessly snatched the opponent's ante card Dynamite Golem which was still on top of his opponent's graveyard pile, took his bag, sat down on the floor in a corner of the room and hugged his knees, staring on the ground in front of him. For the millionth time, Rai wondered why he even put up with the crazy boy. For a brief moment, his thoughts escaped his control and showed him the face of the only true friend he had ever had, and made him terribly sad. 


End file.
